The physical appearance of the natives is subject to considerable 



community, and this as regards stature, muscular development, 

 cast of feature and other particulars. Some of these differences 



enee of fnuii ]>!•(»( lucts, ^vhile some are as certainly hereditary racial 

 peculiari! i.-^. Tlic \n ivt(;})ed emaciated creature whose bones may 

 all be tul.l liiruui,^! his skin although often presented to us as the 

 picture of the Australian is not a true picture. Such will be the 

 appearance of parties where the food supply is always scant, or of 

 others at a time of the year or in an unfavuorable season wlien 

 food is much more scarce than usual. It is also true that the 

 inhabitants of the interior and the north are more spare, and 

 perhaps on the average taller than those in the east, south, and 

 west, but men of muscular frame and stout build are common 

 enough in the coast districts other than the north. Taking the 

 continent all over, the average height of the men will not exceed 

 5 ft. 6 in., and of the women 5 ft. There is however, hardly a 

 community in which two or three six-footers will not be found. 

 As a rule the muscles are not largely developed, but there are 

 numerous exceptions. In southern Queensland I have seen a type 

 of man about 5 ft. 4 in. in height, thick set and powerfully 

 muscular. One man oi this stamp received his name fi-om the 

 massiveness of the cahes of his legs. But even the lanker men 

 are \ei7 stiuiig and wiry in proportion to their weight, both bone 

 and muscle Ijeing excessively tough. 



Tlie colour of the skin is shaded from a dusky copper to a 

 brownish-black. The new-born babe is singularly fair but becomes 

 gradually darker with age. The natives have a predilection for 

 ebony skins as a mark of beauty, a preference which may be due 

 to the fact that the substratum of the population was originally 

 sooty-black. In those parts of the country which have already 

 been particularized as more distinctly Papuan there is usually an 

 abundance of hair on the face and breast, a characteristic which 

 accompanies increased squareness of build and greater muscularity. 

 In the central parts there is less beard and less hair on the breast, 

 and in the north, in some parts at least, the body is smooth and 

 the beanl very scanty. Throughout the continent the hair of the 

 hofid with some notable exceptions is of a glossy raven black very 

 re.lundanr .md usually wavy. Where the Papuan blood is most 

 prcduiiunanr: the hair is often curly and frizzy and sometimes 

 w(xjlly. I knew one blacklwy in the south of Queensland who.-;*' 

 hair was «,f a dirty yellowish-brown, and there are several well 

 authenticated cases of true nativas having hair that has been 

 described, perhaps with poetic exaggeration,^ as golOen yeUow. A 



